Bering Sea Ice Blues Mid April 2019

“Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose.” (Kris Kristofferson)

In April, Arctic ice extent declined as usual with the notable exceptions of Bering Sea, along with ice retreating in nearby Okhotsk. Bering still has some ice to lose, but at 178k km2 it is only 31% of the ice there January 27, the largest Bering extent this year. It is unusual since the Bering ice is only 25% of the 12 year average for this date. Nearby Chukchi Sea is hardly showing any open water, down only 10k km2 from its maximum. Open water is also gaining in Okhotsk, the other Pacific basin, but ice extent there is still 6% above the 12-year average.

Elsewhere things are mostly typical with Russian and Canadian basins are frozen with high extents. The other two places losing ice are Barents and Baffin Bay/Gult of St. Lawrence shown below.On the right side is Barents losing ice along the Russian coastline, while holding onto Svalbard. On the left, water in Baffin Bay is pushing north along the western Greenland coast. On the extreme left is open water taking over in Gult of St. Lawrence

The graph below shows how the Arctic extent has faired since the March maximum compared to the 12 year average with and without the Pacific basins of Bering and Okhotsk. The green line is the 12yr. average without B&O, while 2019 appears in purple when Bering and Okhotsk are excluded.As of day 105, 2019 ice extent is 858k km2 below the 12yr. average, a gap of 6%. 529k km2 of that difference comes from the combined losses in Bering and Okhotsk.

The graph below shows March/April 2019 compared to average and some years of interest.

All years are tracking below the 12-year average. 2019 MASIE and SII are the same and well below 2018, largely due to Pacific ice losses. 2007 is only slightly higher than 2019 at this point. The table below shows ice extents by regions comparing 2019 with 12-year average (2007 to 2018 inclusive) and 2007.

Region

2019105

Day 105 Average

2019-Ave.

2007105

2019-2007

(0) Northern_Hemisphere

13443363

14301788

-858425

13588722

-145359

(1) Beaufort_Sea

1070498

1069781

717

1068692

1806

(2) Chukchi_Sea

955995

965240

-9245

961638

-5643

(3) East_Siberian_Sea

1087137

1086417

721

1078666

8471

(4) Laptev_Sea

897845

893203

4642

843501

54344

(5) Kara_Sea

932750

922684

10066

890594

42156

(6) Barents_Sea

586518

611095

-24577

439904

146614

(7) Greenland_Sea

601126

652308

-51182

673585

-72458

(8) Baffin_Bay_Gulf_of_St._Lawrence

1133317

1349987

-216669

1215526

-82208

(9) Canadian_Archipelago

853337

852527

810

848812

4526

(10) Hudson_Bay

1238689

1252970

-14281

1208588

30101

(11) Central_Arctic

3241460

3236044

5416

3235648

5811

(12) Bering_Sea

177335

714883

-537548

600281

-422946

(13) Baltic_Sea

16987

48771

-31784

23534

-6547

(14) Sea_of_Okhotsk

648664

640205

8459

491121

157543

As indicated earlier, Bering supplies almost 2/3 of the deficit to average, with Baffin Bay providing most of the other 1/3.